How does he decide who to put back there, and what is he looking for at this stage of training camp?

“That’s a good question,” Sparano said. “It’s funny because I just had this conversation about 45 minutes ago with Bono [special teams coach John Bonamego]. We have a couple guys right now that look like returners, that are back there. They’re fast, they’re built the right way, they can break tackles, they can do some of those things.

“The problem is you gotta see them in game situations, and how many at-bats are you going to have in the preseason to get this evaluated? We gotta see it out here in practice as much as we possibly can, and then get them to the game.”

And what is he looking for in those few minutes each day that are devoted to special teams work?

“I think one of the things you’re trying to get out of that is somebody that will come forward out of this group of players,” Sparano said. “We had [fifth-rounder] Nolan Carroll back there yesterday. [Kory] Sheets, Tristan Davis, [Pat] Cobbs, a couple [other] guys that we’ve had back there returning kicks. We need to get somebody out of this group that is fearless with the ball but explosive that can advance the ball that way.”